Into the Void
by Hamid lawnmower
Summary: The stroy of Tribute, a fallen colony, and the infernel battle for its control, jump in the void.


PROLOGUE

05:00 am hours, 1, September, 2552, aboard UNSC Iwo Jima, in orbit above New Stalingrad, inner colony of Tribute.

Private first class Vogel K. Erwin sighed as a high-pitched wailing sound buzzed through the ODST-exclusive operations room. He and twenty other shock troopers moved to their respective stations. Vogel was disappointed with the interruption of the last drink of fine beer in years he had taken. He wore his helmet and sheathed his combat knife, doing so as he moved to the ship-board armoury, selecting a MA5B assault rifle, BR55 battle rifle and M6C SOCOM.

He strode toward his drop pod otherwise known as a SOIEV and secured his weapons in the empty containers then sat down in it, closed the hatch, secured his harness and flicked the 'release ready' button. The drop pod rotated automatically in perfect synchronization with the other SOIEV's and the seemed to hang their for a moment or two before it dropped down a tube that ran through the ship's hull. The pod flew downwards toward the surface, as it cleared the upper atmosphere, fire streaking against its ceramic body.

Clouds surrounded the pod, obstructing Vogel's view for five seconds before the early traces of water and land began to appear. The ride down was silent, no one spoke over the COM, and everyone knew the mission: drop down, rendezvous at rally point Charlie then fight towards a covenant AA emplacement and neutralize it. As he could see the ground in more detail now, his chute opened and slowed the pod down for the final descent.

The chute released and the pod crashed down, the impact paralyzed Vogel for three seconds before he snapped back to reality and popped the hatch, slinging the BR over his back and levelling his assault rifle. He sprinted out into the world, explosions sent debris flying everywhere, plasma streaked around him, and he spotted a jackal lance. He crouched, rolled to his left then fired his rifle, bullets penetrating the jackal's scaly skin through the gaps in its shield. Purple blood squirted out of its neck onto the alien next to him, alerting it of Vogel's presence. The alien fired three shots at Vogel, two missed and the last hit another ODST in the torso burning though his body.

As the other trooper screamed Vogel fired at the jackal, its body backed up as it was riddled with bullets then dropped to the ground. Vogel continued forward towards the rally point, followed by two of his comrades up a hill. The man to his right was killed by a mortar hit, his leg and arm blasted out as his carcass was thrown up into the air followed by debris and red blood. Vogel skidded to a halt and dropped prone, he was just about to alert the man to his left about a sniper before the mans head exploded, his body stood there for a second before it fell and rolled down the hill, headless.

Vogel swapped his MA5B for his battle rifle, levelled the weapon and zoomed the scope to x5. Through the scope he saw a jackal major with a beam rifle; he aimed for its head and fired one burst, a hole burst through the alien's head, blood pouring from both sides. Vogel jumped up and ran forward, taking down two grunts with three bursts from his rifle; he took cover behind a mangled and destroyed wraith. The private reloaded his BR55 battle rifle, he spotted 6 drop pods coming down, and they landed 1 second apart from each other.

As the emerging ODST's charged forward, Vogel ran from his cover, jumping over countless human and covenant corpses until he reached rally point Charlie. A mock HQ had been setup, essentially a bunch of overturned covenant vehicles forming a square covered by a tent and riddled with wires and cables spread like an uncut grapevine. He saw troopers being tended by medical staff, officers organizing their men and 3 warthogs being refuelled and repaired. Vogel noticed a familiar looking officer, and walked up to him.

"Sir! Private first class Vogel K. Rommel, 2nd ODST Company, 14th Calvary division, 16th UNSC Marine corps sir!" Vogel saluted, the officer looked away from his chart, eyeing Vogel for a while before responding.

"At ease son," Vogel dropped his hand,"What's your squad soldier?"

"Fire team India sir." The officer checked his chart; Vogel noticed the stripes of a lieutenant.

"Reports say they are all KIA, is this true?"

"Yes I believe so sir."

"Well then, we better get you a new squad private." The lieutenant said in a more humorous mood, he checked his chart, ticked some names then said,

"I'm Lieutenant George S. Corman; I'm command of Fire team Bravo, thirty men, now thirty one. Welcome to Bravo son." The lieutenant gave his arm and Vogel shook it.

"T-Thank you sir, it's an honour!" Vogel saluted.

CHAPTER 1, RESISTANCE

05:35 am hours, 1, September, 2552, 14th Calvary division HQ, Outskirts of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Only 35 minutes into the battle and already the bad news became to surge in. As the human population began to evacuate Tribute, a fleet escort had arrived, consisting of 2 frigates and a destroyer, a single covenant cruiser had dealt 90% damage in a skirmish above the colony world, and only a lowly frigate survived. That frigate was UNSC Iowa Jima, the same ship he had dropped down from above the city.

The ship was heavily damaged, the MAC gun obliterated, 50mm guns disabled and the archers pods empty. One of its two main engines was destroyed, three long sword bays destroyed but on the plus side its entire land based fleet of 15 warthogs, 4 scorpion tanks, 1 elephant and a half dozen mongoose's had survived. Its complement of 12 pelicans was already bringing in reinforcements.

But the covenant weren't out of the battle yet, although their CSS cruiser was destroyed by the fleet escort it had already deployed its entire land based fleet numbering in the thousands. 14th Calvary division had only 348 ODST's and 421 marines which totalled as a 769-strong fighting force. Although the covenant had the number advantage the 14th Calvary division had human heart and perseverance, something those damn squid-heads will never have.

At least that's what Vogel had been told by Lieutenant Corman, Vogel wanted to believe him but inside he knew that it wasn't enough, the covenant glassed reach for Christ's sake, which was the most defended colony in all UNSC controlled space, other than earth. Reach had fallen, and now the covenant was mopping up the rest of the system. Vogel knew him and his comrades would put up a fight but for how long? How long before the covenant simply glassed the planet?

Vogel banished those thoughts and surveyed the map in front of him, the hill were the HQ had been setup was 5 km NW from covenant AA emplacements. After his assignment to bravo team he had been given a new mission, their was a covenant barricade 2km east of the AA guns, he, and 14 other men from bravo team were going to execute a rapid-raid on the stronghold and place C7 explosives on three key strong points. This barricade was the only obstacle between here and their gold object, the reason for them being dropped on this god forsaken hellhole.

The UNSC wanted the AA guns out so they could send in three groups of 2 Shortsword bombers to carpet bomb the covenant staging platform, a base stretching across 120 square meters that was right in the heart of the city which was currently littered with covenant infantry and equipment. Vogel was sitting in a mock ops room, surveying the map for another route in the city when a Gunnery sergeant barged in the room.

Vogel looked up as the sergeant came charging towards him, a Lance corporal Joe Hubbard stood up and shouted, "Attention!" everyone, including Vogel got up from their seats, and formed a single-file line. The sergeant eyed each one of them, fifteen men in total, designated as alpha team, assigned with the barricade raid. He came up to Vogel and looked at him. Vogel had a strong jaw, light blue eyes, short light brown hair, cut military style and had a long scar that went down from his temple to his right cheek.

"How'd you get that-"the sergeant paused, looked at Vogel's tag and continued,"-Vo-gal?"

"Energy-sword wielding zealot sir, the gold types, jumped me as soon as I opened my hatch, on Harvest, my first real drop in an HEV." Vogel replied, he had a hint of a German accent, the sergeant continued surveying the rest. When he finished he turned on his heel and stood in front of the men, "Well my name is Gunnery sergeant Patton, and no I'm not ole' blood and guts George Patton from the US third army, I wish I was though, he commanded the toughest Calvary in military history."

Vogel knew exactly what the sergeant was taking about; General George Patton was a world war two tank commander, the equivalent of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, which Vogel's dad had been named after. As a boy growing up, Vogel had always been interested in World War 2; in particular the great historic battles between Panzers, Sherman's and t-34's, the three great mbt's of ww2 history.

Vogel's father, Brigadier general Erwin Clausen had led the UNSC 29th armoured battalion during its battles on harvest and the outer colonies, he commanded over 130 scorpion tanks and 50 grizzlies. During the battle of Restuduies a city in a outer colony that Vogel couldn't pronounce his father had led his battalion against over 560 covenant tanks, using diversionary tactics, his father had shrunken the enemy forces to almost nil, that's when hundreds of covenant banshees swarmed in followed by thousand of elite soldiers. Erwin was in his command tank when a zealot ripped open the hatch and threw the general onto the floor, the man knew fighting elite hand to hand was suicide so he set off a grenade and blew himself, the zealot and 3 other elite ultras to hell. Vogel was thirty light-years away fighting on harvest when he received the news.

"But I'm not, however I do command my own grizzly tank which with the help of you men will rip that barricade apart. It won't be easy; those bastards will have shades, and two ghosts plus thirty elites. 15 men against those odds seem like suicide, but we are orbital drop shock-FUCKING-troopers!" The men cheered in unison but the sergeant quieted them down." We will also have the help of Spartan-1252, his names classified as he's not your ordinary Spartan II, he's part of Team Vogue, which consists of him and two other Spartans who are both MIA."Vogel could tell he was lying, he knew about the whole 'don't list a Spartan as KIA for morale reasons' thing.

"You men will each be assigned a task by me but during the conflict should anything go terribly wrong I designated a regroup zone on each of your VISR's." the sergeant paused, looked concerned and continued, "ok, this is how it's going to go…

06:12 hours, 1, September, 2552, aboard M12warthog LRV enroute to covenant barricade, industrial wing, New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Spartan-1252, Mark sat hunched in the drivers seat of the warthog; next to him a Private Vogel repeatedly checked his assault rifle, _precombat jitters _Mark thought, it was normal considering he was a private, he pushed the jeep into higher gear. Vogel and Mark were tasked with being the backbone of the attack, when they got there they were going to get out the jeep and focus mainly on kicking major-elite ass, other men were tasked with anti-air, anti-armor and destroying the barricade. The barricade was essentially a covenant stronghold that covered half the main highway, it had three shades scattered around and vehicle blockades everywhere so they had to go on foot. Their was an alley way that led right into the heart of it all, that was his and Vogel's ticket in.

No one was in the gunner's seat, because the gun was taken off and attached to the command grizzly. Instead their was a makeshift armory which contained hundreds of clips of ammo, over 20 M9-HE DP fragmentation grenades, 12 rocket tubes for 2 M19 SSM rocket launchers and 50 8 gauge magnum rounds for M90 shotgun. Both Mark and Vogel each carried one MA5B assault rifle, one BR55 battle rifle, one M6D sidearm and 3 grenades plus 5 clips for both rifles. It was obvious they were armed to the teeth, other than being tasked with slaughtering aliens they were also the only armory for the whole of the operation.

The Spartan put the warthog into a turn and skidded with extreme precision they continued down the street, passing an intersection before reaching the alleyway. There was a sudden eruption of gun-fire, explosions and screams as the other half of bravo team pushed forward, Mark heard and saw the flare then shoved the pedal down, the warthog sped down the alley way and smashed into the heart of the fight, taking down two elites already.

Mark and Vogel exited the hog and threw all three of their grenades into designated pre-planned areas. The six grenades killed 6 elites, 9 jackal and 3 grunts, but that was just the beginning.

The two man team took cover behind the warthog and opened the ammo stash, taking ten grenades each, Vogel set 5 on one side of the road and rang a thread through the pins, as did mark. They took cover again, two ghosts, 10 grunts and 8 elites walked right into the trap. The men pulled the threads in union and all hell broke loose. The grenades exploded at the same time, sending burned and bloody carcasses and alien body parts flying everywhere, purple bloodstained a 5 square meter section of the highway accompanied by brains, tissue and burned metal. As the assault force pushed forward the two men got into the jeep and backpedaled into the alleyway.

Now came phase two, they abandoned the jeep and set it to a pre-planned course: it would drive right into the AA emplacement and with the help of some C7 would explode right in the middle of it. They hauled the ammo stash into a 2 storey office building facing the southern entrance to the barricade. The two men setup a garrison on the top floor and both of them hauled the armory unto a balcony. Battle rifles ready they started firing down on the enemy below, taking out the shade pilot, 23 grunts and 11 elites. Before the covenant even knew what happened to their rear flank the entire force of aliens was eradicated.

06:41 am hours, 1, September, 2552, destroyed covenant barricade, industrial wing, New Stalingrad, Tribute.

As the first shimmers of sun began to envelope the night sky, the last C7 explosive set off. _So much for a barricade_ thought Mark. In only 29 minutes the ODST team had completely annihilated the covenant stronghold on the highway. The bodies totaled to 102 covenant deaths, and only 3 UNSC casualties. It was all thanks to Mark and Vogel, if not for them the ODSTs would have been slaughtered, easy. But their fight didn't end their, Lieutenant Corman's other half of bravo team plus 23 other ODSTs were killed in a covenant mortar counter-attack and they needed more time to mount another offensive on the AA guns. So now they were stuck here, on the highway only 2km from the AA emplacement, they had orders to defend the highway to the last man, if the covenant retook it the UNSC forces would have a much harder job to do. There was a 'staff meeting' downstairs so Vogel and mark left their guns on the balcony and took the stairs because the elevator couldn't take the wait of a Spartan. Everyone took a seat while the Spartan stayed standing, Sergeant Patton walked into the building, stood in front of the group of soldiers and begun immediately:

"Well, now that we have over 30 men dead back at HQ we got to hold this section of the highway, the covenant will launch a counter-attack, were sure of that and we cant let them take our real estate. I'm going to brief you on our current situation, we have 12 men left plus the Spartan, now I know he outranks me by heaps but certain circumstances put me in charge. Anyway, we have THIRTEEN men, 2 warthogs, my grizzly, 1 mongoose and 1 shade plus a shit load of ammo, the covies are gonna come at us with wraiths and infantry so don't worry about ghosts or banshees. Your all lucky sons of bitches cause I already made a map of where your gonna go and what your going with, it should upload to your visors soon, NOW GET INTO PISITION!"

07:12 hours, 1, September, 2552, covenant forward base, city center, New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Orga Fulsaramee' placed his hand on the security scanner; the floating device emitted a low vibration before the doors swung open. The alien walked into the covenant operations room with an air of superiority and raw power, the elite monster stood at an intimidating 10'2, unusually high for his race but not amazingly high. He was wearing gold and tan commando-variant of the elite combat harness, his helmet was clutched in his left hand.

"Ahhh…Orga Fulsaramee, its good to see you bothered to actually come to the briefing." Said a commando elite, Orga had known him since the start of the holy war, when they were both lowly minors. There had been an arch rivalry between the two, they had fought almost each mission together, if one was promoted it wouldn't be too long for the other to catch up, but right now Orga was zealot and Susa was an ultra. Orga felt like unsheathing his energy sword and shoving it into Susa's (as the elite was known as) heart. Instead he replied with equal rudeness.

"Yes Susa, I also bothered to bring my sword with me." The surrounding elites stood at attention, ready to break up a fight should the need arise. Susa stared into Orga's eyes for what seemed like an hour, he knew he was defeated so then changed the subject. "Well we'll need that later for the human mongrels, they have attacked our defensive garrison near our AA batteries, we responded with a mortar attack but only inflicted a quarter of the casualties they caused at the garrison. We cannot allow this to pass, that's why you've been ordered to retake this vital chokehold. I've been ordered to give you all the troops and equipment you need but don't push it."

"Very well, how much filth is there at the garrison? 100, 200?" Orga asked.

Susa hesitated,

"N-No, there was around 20 but they-"

"20! We lost over 120 fine men and two reconnaissance vehicles in a 20-man assault?" Orga roared with anger, he didn't care how loud he was, the loss was unacceptable.

"There was AROUND 20 but they were assisted by another one of those armored cyborgs, those demons."

Susa replied. He didn't want to stare into Orga's eyes, who would want to being the bearer of such news.

"I thought they were all eradicated in our recent victory." Orga was talking about Reach, it was believed that the rest of these 'demons' all fought to the death on the human colony.

"Most of them were, but not all, and if the demon didn't assist, the assault would have been a huge failure."

Orga thought for a moment, how could one single man make such a difference? They cannot be that powerful, or could they be, suddenly Orga felt a very strong anxiety in his stomachs; he underestimated the scale of the attack. "Susa, prepare 50 of your finest commandoes, 2 mortar-gun carriages, two antiaircraft- assault carriages and as much dropships needed to transport them and drop them of 1 kilometer from the garrison. Prepare the same load-out for an assault on the enemy head quarters. Once you've finished prepare yourself and meet me at staging platform 9C, have your men and vehicles assembled and ready for war. There are humans to kill and were going to guarantee that each one of them feel the holy blade of the prophets, show absolutely no mercy.

07:29 am hours, 1, September, 2552, UNSC garrison at site of destroyed covenant barricade, industrial wing, New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Vogel didn't know why but he had a gut feeling that everyone was truly fucked. For the last 10 minutes contact with HQ had been completely lost, for that entire 10 minutes all they heard was distant mortar strikes and gun-fire, and now from the relative direction of the HQ a huge black cloud arose which blocked the sun. He sat next to a shade turret, abandoned during the raid. The turret was positioned in a courtyard, facing the highway which offered a complete view of the entire road. He was simply going to have to mow down any attackers, the courtyard was at the far end of the highway and so he was a last line of defense, other troopers were scattered in cover, some in a 4 storey high tower but most were positioned on the road, since the alley way could not support a wraith the covenant would have to go right through the barricade.

Ten C7 explosives stretched across the road and Vogel had strict orders that if all had been lost he'd blow the charge and get the hell out of there. The explosives were positioned so that if set of nothing would survive, it was a good last resort, one that Vogel hoped he was not going to have to use. But as an uneventful morning dragged on he knew that the covenant was planning something. Suddenly the ground began shaking, for 10 full seconds everyone fell silent, something heavy was moving, Vogel got up and activated the shade, and nothing was on the street, yet.

Then he heard that sound, that distinctive sound, that distinctive sound that told you to duck, Vogel knew exactly what that sound was, "WRAITH!" As if out of the blue he saw a three plasma mortars streak up the sky, hang there for a second and plummet down, the first killed a soldier and blasted a warthog to smithereens, the second exploded on a building roof and sent rubble and debris flying and the third, well the third mortar fell right next to Vogel's shade, the force of the blast blew Vogel out of his seat and sent him three meters forward, the world seemed to slow down for a while and then he fell and hit something hard, blackness shrouded his vision and he fell unconscious.

07:31 am hours, 1, September, 2552, UNSC garrison at site of destroyed covenant barricade, industrial wing, New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Orga Fulsaramee led the charge, he ran down the road as bullets plucked at his shields, he saw a human with a rocket launcher jump up from cover, without his own weapon ready Orga rolled forward and then slammed against cover as the 102mm shaped charge blasted two of his men to hell. He activated his dual energy swords, for a second admiring them as they came to life before jumping over his cover and sprinting forward into a building. Inside two marines fired helplessly inaccurately at the elite, but to no avail. He ran for the closest marine and decapitated him with his sword, the head flew across the room, red blood splattered against Orga's bright golden armor, he lunged at the other human as it tried to run, Orga pushed him down and ran a blade through the mans throat. Orga saw the same rocket launcher-armed human out a window, this time he didn't have time to roll, and the rocket blasted out of its tube, through the window and slammed right into the elite's torso, the shields took the force of the blast, but the explosion sent Orga flying into the wall.

The elite stood up, he wasn't bleeding but his back hurt like hell, he waited for his shields to Recharge; he looked for his swords but couldn't spot them, with no time the elite simply jumped out the window and charged across 6 lanes of chaos. His forces were making progress but the defenders were offering fierce resistance, Orga spotted the rocket wielding marine and charged at him. Just as he came within hands reach of the human its head exploded, its brains parts and bit of its skull splattered Orga's armor, now he was covered completely with enemy blood, a testament to his strength. Orga was infuriated to see that it was Susa holding a Beam rifle, _it was my kill and he knew it, the insubordinate bastard will pay _Orga thought. Susa threw a plasma sword to him; orga took it and pushed forward.

07:39 am hours, 1, September, 2552, UNSC garrison at site of destroyed covenant barricade, industrial wing, New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Mark was amazed at the resistance the ODSTs were offering, he had obviously underestimated them, and after all they were the best of the UNSC, second to Spartans. The Spartan leveled his grenade launcher, he held the trigger and the grenade fired, bouncing of a wall then it just sat there, a trio of elites walked past and mark let go of the trigger, the grenade exploded, it didn't kill them but five quick bursts from Marks M203 DMR fulfilled the task.

No ammo, _dammit_ mark thought, he tossed the rifle and picket up a fallen enemy focus rifle, it was a good replacement, these weapons would fire beams of plasma which would incinerate enemy shields. He exited the office building, all hell was taking place, heads exploded, arms were blown off and bodies tossed around by mortar. The two AA wraiths had been destroyed but their remained one last mortar-tank remained. He pulled the trigger and the beam flared at an elite's shield, the shields held but then popped, and the beam penetrated the flesh of the alien, killing him instantly.

Mark sprinted forward, encountered a ultra, took care of him with some throat snapping and pressed on, dodging some grenades before he reached a slab of metal, he couched and threw a fragmentation grenade over his head, he was rewarded with alien screams and blood. Mark surveyed the trashed section of road, three dead ODSTs, lots more elites dead and one guy that seemed to be conscious but couldn't move, mark looked closer, and it was Vogel!

He ran out of cover, bullets and plasma bolts flying everywhere, as he was running he hauled the ODST up and kicked down a door. Inside a marine was firing a turret out a window relentlessly. Mark took off Vogel's ruined helmet, his face had shards of visor in it and lots of bruises. The Spartan used a nearby med kit to profesionally apply some field dressings to the ODSTs head. Vogel got up and thanked mark that's when an elite zealot charged in followed by an ultra, the zealot slashed the marine while the ultra went for the Spartan.

Susa was not thinking with his brain when he charged the demon; he brought the blade down but in a blur of motion the demon dodged and appeared behind the elite, Susa swung backwards but the Spartan caught his wrist and ripped it off, the elite screamed as blood gushed out of his arm, the human then unsheathed his combat knife and stabbed Susa in the stomach 3 times and then twice in the throat. Susa felt an excruciatingly painful surge take over him, he looked down, his stomach ripped apart, and he gasped for air while trying to stop the bleeding in his throat. He struggled for what felt like ages before his vision was shrouded by white, the demons visor was the last thing he ever saw.

Orga looked to his right, the demon stood there while Susa struggled then fell, _serves him right, although I would have liked to kill him myself_ he thought as a pool of blood flooded the ground beneath the demon. The zealot took five steps forward and tried to stab the Spartan, the demon grabbed the elite's right hand, and Orga used his other sword and stabbed the human in the ribs, the sword punched through the energy shields and dug two inches deep into the demons body.

Spartan-1252 twisted the elite zealot's right hand around forcing the alien to reveal his back, the Spartan then took the blade out of his ribs and stabbed the elite in the back, the elite screamed and turned, he jumped on the Spartan; they both struggled for power as they bled at a huge rate, with both almost fatal wounds the fight didn't last long, the Spartan was simply not strong enough, the elite took Marks fallen combat knife and pushed it into the Spartans chest, the demon offered strong resistance but the elite overpowered him, Orga recited the writ of union as he slowly shoved the knife through the layers of armor. Mark looked at Vogel, and uttered his last words: "pull the plug." before he finally died.

Vogel, still weak from his wounds still managed to reach the explosive trigger, he ran out the door but was surrounded by elites, he was encircled, no where to run, he saw fire and smoke, they lost, the covenant had done it. Orga pushed the elites out of the way, he approached the human, the ODST was in black clad armor, one of the humans finest.

"You struggled against the inevitable; you are an affront to the gods and will die as such."

Vogel didn't understand the elite, he looked at the button, he had to pull it.

"Yeah? Well you and the rest of your squid-head friends can all go to hell, and I'm your ticket to it." The alien's definitely understood that. Vogel took one last look and pulled the trigger.

CHAPTER 2, EARN THE STRIPES

07:42 am hours, 1, September, 2552, UNSC garrison at site of destroyed covenant barricade, industrial wing, New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Lance corporal Joe Hubbard of the 2nd ODST Company levelled his MA37 assault rifle once more; he spotted the elite and returned fire, the armour piercing rounds struck its shields, the semi-transparent force field flashed yellow, red then popped, electricity surged around the elites armour but the last three rounds did their job. The bullets smashed into the elites helmet, the sheer stopping power blew the head gear off and killed the alien.

He duck behind the smouldered remains of a warthog as three other aliens returned fire, the ODST ejected the nearly empty clip, he felt around his vest, no ammo left. He abandoned the rifle and switched to his M7S sound suppressed- sub machine gun, flicked off the safety and fired blindly over the warthog's chassis. The covenant was winning no doubt about it, he peered over the warthog and a plasma bolt struck his chest, sending him back five feet. Although it hurt like hell his armour absorbed the attack, he looked down at the remains of his chest plate, and the plasma stopped burning just as it reached his skin.

Suddenly the gun fire stopped all around him, a plasma grenade flew and exploded on a sign post and then he was buried with rubble. Although he couldn't move, Joe could still see through the debris, the elites charged forward, they encircled something, he looked closer and saw a ODST, the last man standing, a blood drenched elite said something to him and the marine replied, Joe's world exploded, literally.

10 C7 explosives detonated, the fire plumes incinerated the elites, a wall of fire swallowing the entire highway, ending all life. Joe saw a flash of yellow before he was thrown ten meters into the air, at that moment he could see the surrounding buildings, all on fire. He felt like a hot air balloon, the heat in his legs felt like thousands of ignited firebombs. He seemed to hang in the air for a second before falling 10 meters into a blood stained fountain.

Joe was in a wonder land of nowhere, he couldn't see, hear or feel anything but he knew he was alive. He swallowed water, essentially red and purple blood, but he didn't realize that until he opened his eyes. Joe sprang out of the pool, drenched in alien and human blood. What he saw was amazing. What used to be a trashed highway were now 10, four-foot deep black craters. The office building had lost its entire road-facing half. The other surrounding buildings had the same case. He ignored his bloodied and aching body, he only suffered minor cuts and bruises, it was a miracle, and if Joe had ever been more thankful to god it was now. Where the 30 or so elites stood, there remained a jagged piece of asphalt. Joe checked the COM for any updates-nothing, only static. He tried several different channels but failed. With no other option he made best speed back to HQ.

08:23 am hours, 1, September, 2552, 14th Calvary division HQ, Outskirts of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Brigadier General Vincent Matthews hung suspended by energy bracelets, next to him a dead Lieutenant Corman and three other dying officers. Since the covenant had taken the command head quarters they have been rounding up officers and interrogating them. An elite ship master lead all covenant forces in New Stalingrad and visited his prisoners occasionally. Rumours had reached that the forces at the high way had fallen, with no human or covenant survivors. Good, they had blown the road to hell, now it proved useless.

The overhead lights shimmered to life and a trio of elites stormed in, they strode towards the general. One of them touched a panel and the bracelets came free, Vincent fell to the floor, he was on his knees weakened by hours of interrogation. The leader of the trio picked the general as if he was as light as paper. He held up a pad in front of Vincent's face, then it yelled gibberish at the general, two seconds later the pad translated and it read: You will come aboard our holy ship, and give us the location of your home world, earth.

Vincent looked the beast in the eye and spat into his face, the monster dropped him took out an energy sword and decapitated two officers, their heads rolled across the room and one stopped at an angle which made it look like the head was staring right into the generals eyes. "YOU BASTARDS! You'll pay, I swear to god I will rip your eyes out of your sockets and shove them down your sliced throat you snivelling piece of shit!" The elite walked forward and back handed the general. His nose bled profusely. The execution wasn't necessary it's not like they asked the general if he wanted to go aboard their ship. Nevertheless he was dragged out of the room and into the open world.

What used to be a camp now was a huge covenant citadel, its tower rose 20 meters into the air; various buildings were attached in a military network of alien cables and plasma conduits. The three elites took him to a spirit dropship, it seemed specially designed for prisoners as it had and extra holding bay under its main body, the general was thrown into a chamber full of rotting corpses, they sealed the hatch and the dropship lifted off. The general new it was hopeless to get out, even if he got the hatch open he'd have to jump out as their was nothing that lead to the inner hull. So he just sat their for 20 minutes trying to ignore the smell before he felt the dropship slow down, level its self and dock.

The hatch was opened by the same elite, this time without his aides. He took the general by the neck as he refused to walk and led him through the inner workings of a covenant destroyer. They reached a heavily guarded corridor with a huge ceiling and unnecessarily long pathway filled with ceremonial honour guards, this must have been the prophet's quarters. The two reached a large door; it blinked pink, emitted a sound familiar with covenant doors and opened. They were now inside a huge dome; it appeared to be a private observation deck as you could see the surrounding stars and moons.

The elite bowed before what seemed to be a prophet, the general had seen these before, he was familiar with their floating thrones and ceremonial head gear.

"My holy one, I have brought their leader." The elite said, the prophet turned and stared at Vincent before ordering the elite to leave, he also ordered the hundred or so honour guards in the room to stand down. Vincent guessed the aliens didn't ever expect a human to be left that close to their 'holies'.

"You are the field commander of the human forces on the surface of the city, am I correct?" the prophet asked calmly and waited patiently. The prophet already knew so the general didn't see the point of hiding away, "Yes, I am. You must be the prophet." The alien seemed surprised with the general but hid his shock and continued. "Yes, Prophet of Vengeance to be exact, I'm one of the three prophet hierarchs, leaders of the covenant, I tell you this in hopes that you'll be as honest to me as possible. Now all I need to know is the location of your home world… E-ar-th."

Vincent was silent.

"Your silence is just another form of regret."…"Very well, I won't have you killed just yet, you'll be taken to the brig, where you'll spend your time watching your planets burn. I hope you're happy. Guards take him away!" Ten honour guards walked towards the general. They dragged him away to the brig and shoved him in a cell, throwing in some kind of raw meat. Vincent ignored it then started formulating a plan, he was going to get off the ship somehow, or he was going down with it.

08:45 am hours, 1, September, 2552, previous site of 14th Calvary division HQ, Outskirts of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Joe Hubbard lay prone on the dirt; he examined the site of the covenant base, they had created a huge prowess of military technology in such short time, the HQ must have fallen hours ago. Above the base about 1km high floated a covenant destroyer. He couldn't do anything as of this moment, not with the thousands of covenant soldiers and tanks lying everywhere. He tried the COM again, and then switched to NAVCOM he tried three different frequencies before he heard a voice!

"This is General Swanthron commander of all surviving UNSC forces on or around reach, who is this?"

"Lance corporal Joe Hubbard of the 2nd ODST Company, 14th Calvary division, 16th UNSC Marine corps sir!"

"Where are you stationed soldier?"

"New Stalingrad sir" There was some static and talking in the background.

"Give me a sitrep marine."

"We landed at 0500 hours, we setup an HQ. Our objective was to eliminate a covenant AA emplacement to clear the way for our bombers to take out a covenant forward base in the city centre. There was a barricade, we attacked it and took it but the covenant launched a counter-attack, taking back the highway, but we blew it so now it impassable by vehicles. I'm the only human survivor of that battle. The covenant has taken our HQ and built a second base, they also have a destroyer stationed above it. I am currently half a kilometre to the south west of the base on the crest of a hill."

"Well, have you met up with any survivors?"

"No sir."

"Listen to me very closely soldier; we need you to pinpoint the location of that covenant base using a beacon. We'll have our bombers target it and take it out, Get in their, send the signal and then get the hell out. I know this is all so sudden but if we can retake New Stalingrad we might just have a chance. Just tell me one thing, the destroyer could evacuate the troopers and simply glass the planet, so why is it just hanging there?"

"Guess I'm gonna find out sir."

09:32 am hours, 1, September, 2552, Covenant base, previous site of 14th Calvary division HQ, Outskirts of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Joe wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. So far he had made his way trough hundreds of patrols, and circumnavigated three huge buildings. No single covenant soldier had spotted him except for a group of grunts that were heading his way now, he had a covenant Plasma repeater, and as the three grunts rounded the corner, he fired. The first two fell quickly, and the other one fired back, the plasma bolt missed and the grunt fled. The aliens retreat was cut short as it fell to three plasma hits.

Dead silence followed the incident, so the lance corporal continued forward, past a covenant reactor, over countless covenant plasma tubes and through an abandoned civilian depot. He had finally reached the centre of the base; his GPS marked his position on his TACMAP and pinpointed the location of nearby covenant troops. No threats seemed to be heading his way so he ran towards a UNSC tent. Inside numerous computers and radios sat on makeshift tables, all abandoned but working.

Suddenly one radio flared open in static, there was a distinct voice on the other end, Joe lessened the volume and putt on some head phones. It was Brigadier General Vincent Matthews! The static cleared and the general's voice followed: "This is Brigadier General Vincent Matthews; I'm on board a covenant destroyer-" Static blocked a few words before it cleared again."-They have me prisoner on what I believe is the-"More static,"-Side of the ship, can anyone hear me over?" Joe replied instantly, "Yes sir, this is Lance corporal Joe Hubbard, I'm at the covenant base below the covenant destroyer sir, I have orders from General Swanthron to place a beacon for a bombing run sir." There was a lot more static now, it seemed as if someone was trying to cut the line off. "Roger that marine, listen here, I want you to complete your mission then report back to me immediately… What channel is General Swanthron on?" Hubbard's checked his TACCOM, "Channel 82.3 sir!"

"Good work marine, try to make it out of that base alive, you're the only human on the ground, oh and if you can, try to get to General Swanthron ASAP. I need his permission for a rescue mission." Hubbard's listed the orders on his VISR, "I know its not me to ask but who you gonna rescue sir?" There was a long silence before the Brigadier General replied, "Me."

09:45 am hours, 1, September, 2552, Covenant base, previous site of 14th Calvary division HQ, Outskirts of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

There was no time to run, Joe dove into a meter deep crater, he could see three Shortsword bombers swoop down, the covenant soldiers opened fire with small-arms, it was a futile gesture, the bomb doors opened and every one second three 500-pound iron thermo nitrate-packed bombs dropped down. In less then 30 seconds the entire base was eradicated, Joe once again was left unwounded and alive; _god must really love me_ he thought as he crawled out of the hole. The buildings had collapsed and were all on fire, they were all white hot, surrounded by debris. The covenant citadels tower was still standing, it was naked and all that was left was its frame and some few plates of covenant alloy.

Smoke plumes arose from the buildings; the fires now burned a reddish-purple and rose 10 meters into the air. The atmosphere was becoming increasingly hot, Joe could see thousand of covenant dead, their bodies lay sprawled, and only a handful struggled against the pain. The damage was so extensive; Joe might as well have boarded the covenant destroyer and glassed the entire field. Little did he know he was going to do almost exactly that. He walked around some smouldered metal and under the rubble he found a perfectly fine ghost, with some dents and scratches of course. He hauled a large piece of black metal and flipped it over. The ghost was pulled out of the rubble, sparks flying as its body scraped the burned metals around it.

The ODST touched a panel and the hovercraft came to life, if floated 600 millimetres above the ground, Joe smiled as he took his seat and shoved the pedal, the ghost boosted forward, and in twenty minutes it reached an empty and steep hill. He would get a better signal up there. He parked the ghost at the top of the hill and disembarked from the alien craft. Joe was about to Connect with Brigadier General Vincent Matthews when General Swanthron interrupted. "Listen here marine, I know you have orders to connect with Matthews but me and him have already conferred, you are to meet my men at designated rally point Alpha by 1000 hours. I am up linking this to your TACMAP as we speak. When you get there you will be airlifted to Fort Hannibal. That's where we will discuss your next mission, God speed soldier." The 5-star general didn't even give the marine time to utter a 'yes sir'.

Well he was set, he had orders, a way of completing them and nothing was currently standing in his way, yet. As the hijacked ghost was speeding through empty plains toward an abandoned farm, other wise known as Rally Point Alpha a small buzzing sound began to increase. It started as a low pitch buzz, and then turned into a humming sound, then into the distinct waling sound of 2 banshee fliers. Joe pressed the 'boost' panel and the ghost burst into 100km/h, fast but not fast enough to outrun the infamous covenant banshees. The dreaded sound of numerous plasma bursts was a testament to the chill that crawled up Joe spine. The ground around him burst into plasma, the streaks of energy burned trough the soil and grass. One bolt hit the rear section of the ghost missing the ODST by a mere 30 cm's.

The marine couldn't outrun the planes, and the weapons on the ghost couldn't fire anymore then thirty degrees vertically so Joe was essentially screwed. He'd have to high tail it to the farm and hope one of the generals men had a rocket launcher. The bolts flared all around the marine, two of them weren't blue. _Oh shit._ The ODST turned around to find a covenant Shadow troop transport in heavy pursuit. The vehicles looked clumsy and slow but they were just as fast as his ghost, and their frontal plasma cannons fired at a terrifyingly quick rate. Slung underneath the Shadow was a single covenant spectre loaded with elites. As if things weren't already bad, two other covenant ghosts followed not far behind.

He must have pissed the covenant off a lot when he sent the beacon for the bombers. With the lone ODST outnumbered and outgunned his last option was to pray that that farm was ready for what he was bringing to it. As the barn came into view so did a landed UNSC pelican. He couldn't see more then three troops around the ship, but god was on his side once again. Two rockets streaked out of a field of crops, the marines arming them were invisible to Joe. The rockets homed in on the banshees, one exploded midair while the other tried to pull off a vertical barrel roll but instead turned into smithereens, its pilot guts and blood were accompanied by burned metal and the elite's carcass back down to the ground.

Thank god were the only words in the ODSTs mind at that moment. Out of another field a red laser penetrated the shadows hull, it cut a fine hole fight threw the cockpit of the transport and the sceptre riding beneath it, both pilots screamed as their vehicles imploded simultaneously, their eruptions fused into a single bluish-reddish blossom of fire. Two more rockets were fired, one missed but the other one erupted right next to one of the ghost's sending it flying into ghost number 2. Well that was easy.

Three marines emerged from the crops, they jogged back to the pelican, its thrusters burned fuel as it readied for lift off, the other three marines formed a semi-circle around the pelicans hatch, Joe abandoned the ghost and jumped in, the three other battle-hardened marines followed one-by-one, the hatch was closing as the pelican lifted into the air, once it reached a suitable altitude its thrusters rotated into 180º, the pelican lurched forward and the journey begun, no one spoke on the ride, as if it was oblivious to them what had happened the past five minutes.

10:02 am hours, 1, September, 2552, UNSC Fort Hannibal, Farmlands of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

The Pelican Kilo-163 levelled itself then began to descend, its landing gear lowered from the back hatch, the troop-carrier shuddered then landed, its back hatch, the only way in or out of the plane, opened. Lance Corporal Joe Hubbard jumped out, the thrusters of the pelican, and other VTOL craft threw up dust and grass into the air, forcing Joe to squint, he was directed by a waiting aide through the bustling Airfield and to the main Command&Control HQ, where he was told the General was waiting for him in observation deck C.

He entered the command centre, it was a large six storey chamber, clean and polished, to both of his sides there was a corridor, and 6 doors rang along both sides of each corridor. He looked up; the building had escalators and two elevators, the ceiling was made of titanium-A battle plate, the armour worn by the mighty behemoths of the UNSC fleet, unfortunately nowhere near as protective as the covenants ship-wide shields. The building could probably withstand a covenant torpedo, barely. Out of nowhere another aide appeared as the ODST, still donning his ballistic armour, was admiring the architecture.

"Yeah, I don't blame you, I stood on that spot for five minutes my first time here sir. Follow me; General Swanthron doesn't like being kept waiting." The aide said, Joe followed him into an elevator where they were taken to the top floor, and then the elevator doors opened. Joe was turning around when the aide pressed the 'close door' button. Just as the doors closed together the aide shouted: "Second door to your left! Have a nice day Sir!" Joe didn't have time to reply so he simply followed the aide's directions. The door that had a sign reading 'Observation Deck C' above it was guarded by a single Marine, he looked like he had just awakened from a Las Vegas hangover. The soldier looked at Joe name tag with baggy eyes, and simply moved aside, he opened the door for Joe and didn't utter a single word. The room inside was pretty average, except for a huge window which showed the entire base and the surrounding farmlands. There was a desk with a cup of cold coffee, a standard-issue UNSC field lamp and a few papers. "Lance Corporal Joe Hubbard reporting as ordered sir!" Joe saluted.

A single man stood, eyeing the base, his hands behind his back, his right hand was robotic which Joe assumed was lost in combat. "Welcome to Fort Hannibal, I am General Swanthron, and yes I am a cyborg." The general said as if he could read Joe mind. He turned away from the window and sat down at his desk, sighing. Joe was still saluting until the General said: "At ease son, come over here, I want to show you something." Joe dropped his hand and walked towards the desk. "Look at this report, it's was a bloody massacre." General Swanthron handed the ODST a sheet of paper, not looking away from his work.

/UNSC field report/ New Stalingrad/tribute/ EYES ONLY./encrypted/ CODE RED/ Serial pass: 045HS:U7539H. /Battle of Stalingrad/ events: 14th Calvary division HQ invasion and destruction/

At approximately 0732 hours the 14th Calvary Division HQ was attacked by a covenant strike force. 50 elites accompanied by over 100 other assorted covenant infantry as well as 4 wraiths laid siege to the base, with no heavy defences the ODSTs present had to fight of the attack with only small-arms. The covenant was beaten back, but they regrouped and rearmed, they were assisted by a 6 additional fast-attack vehicles and succeeded in slaughtering the 769 occupants of the base, then they constructed their own base among the rubble. They captured 5 senior officers, and killed all but one, Brigadier general Vincent Matthews who was taken aboard their destroyer, Fading Sanity. The covenant base was then carpet bombed by the bomber force. All covenant forces in or around the base at the time of the bombing are believed KIA.

/end report/

Joe put down the paper on the desk. 769 of his brothers dead, just like that.

"Marine, you were the only survivor of the whole episode, and you solitarily brought death to the thousand of covenant shit holes with your wits and skill. That's why you've been promoted to Sergeant Major; effective from today, congratulations you've earned these stripes." The General handed the insignia of Sergeant Major to Joe with a heavy hand. The ODST took the stripes. "Thank you sir! I'll do you proud!" the general eyed the Sergeant Major and replied with a smirk: "Do me proud? You already have!"

CHAPTER 3, FADING SANITY

10:49 am hours, 1, September, 2552, Ops room D7, UNSC Fort Hannibal, Farmlands of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

The operations room was a circular dome; it had a large holographic projector which now showed the destroyed covenant base, (courtesy of Sergeant Major Joe), and the Covenant destroyer, Fading Sanity, hanging above it. Around the holograph stood Joe, General Swanthron and 5 other ODSTs. From left to right: Lance Corporal Isaac Scott, a battle-hardened soldier who had served on harvest and Joe second-in-command. Corporal Anthony Krukov, a rock-hard Russian heavy weapons specialist who had served on one of the first Marathon-class cruisers ever built. Corporal Smith Millar AKA 'smithy sniper', the squad marksman. Private James Gibson, their tech-geek and Intel officer and last but not least Private Bruce Wright, the squads CQC specialist, his shotgun had helped countless covenant soldier's transcend the physical.

These five men, along with Joe formed Team Glory. The most experienced enlisted soldiers of the entire 16th UNSC marine corps. Each one of them had fought the first encounters on harvest and the outer colonies, they were a handful of troops who had seen the worst of the war yet had survived all and now were here, defending Reach's cousin, Tribute. "I know your original mission was to blow out that AA emplacement Joe but we have a more important task for you and Team Glory. Your are to board the covenant destroyer with one of our hijacked covenant dropships and find Brigadier General Matthews. Go in, get him out and return here."

"This mission, dubbed Operation Stallion, is going to commence by dawn tomorrow, you will take a covenant dropship, we have six captured in Hangar B5, load it with all the equipment and ammo you can carry, and fly to the Destroyer. Your ship will land in the Destroyers hangar; from there you will navigate through the ships hull, till you find the brig in which Matthews is being held on. You well then retreat from the ship with minimum fight, and find any means possible to return back here." Said General Swanthron quiet sternly.

The part about loading their dropship was easy but everything else sounded like a platoon-sized job with heavy casualties and complete confusion. The major had so many questions, so he released them the only way he deemed possible. "Sir, who will fly the ship? How are we going to avoid being blasted on our way there? Who'll tell us were to go? How will we-." Joe questions were cut short, but with answers. "You will be aided by Leonidas." The room fell silent, and the general, seeing the obvious confusion in the six marines' faces continued. "He is a Smart A.I; he specializes in covenant systems navigation and Sabotage. He was created in conjunction with Cortana, the UNSC most sophisticated AI ever built; unfortunately she is believed MIA, along with the entire crew of a single cruiser that survived the Fall of Reach. He will fool the covenant detectors to thinking that the dropship is one of theirs, the covenant can detect a human manned ship, even if the ships one of theirs, and then he will guide you to the brig. He has the exact whereabouts of the captain, what floor, what cell and the shortest and least dangerous way to get there." The Generals words seemed to make everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Listen here, I know you're only six men fighting against all odds, that's why another 30 marines will aide you in the fight, they will also be using covenant dropships, and copies of Leonidas. Oh, and Leonidas will be transported on a Mjlonir Mark 5 (Type C) experimental suit, this is exactly like the suits Spartans use, except these have been altered so that their ultra-fast movement projectors have been removed for use by un-augmented soldiers. They still sport the energy shield and the advanced HUD and COMM systems as well as the crystal-layer that is required for an A.I such as Leonidas." General Swanthron finally breathed out after stammering the last sentences.

That gave Joe some relief, what still irritated him was the lack of Intel on covenant strength onboard the Destroyer. Although they were informed of a covenant hierarch and the 300 or so guards protecting it, they weren't certain of the ships main expeditionary force, or the ships infrastructure, for all they knew the could end up through a maze of corridors or huge bays surrounded by covenant. Little did he know that the ships main structure was based upon those two ideas.

09:01 pm hours, 1, September, 2552, Barracks 2, UNSC Fort Hannibal, Farmlands of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Corporal Isaac Scott lied on his bed bunk, by now the night had completely consumed the day. It was typical on Tribute, on this planet the darkness would pour in by 5 o'clock in the evening, making the night much longer then the day, which also meant that daytime operations had to be quick for the darkness would deter combat effectiveness, but on the good side, the sun would awaken again by 0500 hours, so there was a plus side to it, almost. Isaac looked out the window to his right; the base was still as busy as any other time of day, men running everywhere, Hornets and pelicans kicking up dust and scorpion tanks rumbling from one garage to another. It seemed as no one outside stood still for even a second, all the personnel were busy attending their different stations, trying to get there on time to avoid some sergeants bullshit lecture.

He'd be one of them very soon, as soon as Major Joe Hubbard walked into their bunkroom. They had to prepare for Operation Stallion, his entire squad was here, well not _his_, not anymore, not after Sergeant Major Joe had taken over. They were essentially the same rank, because they were both Lance Corporals, since Joe had received his promotion in less than 10 hours of combat it didn't make him a sergeant major in experience but in skill and courage. There was no time for insubordination though, not with Reach now a ball of glass floating through space, most marines had underestimated the covenant until Reach had fallen, it was effectively the last stronghold, the last Alamo of UNSC space, no, not UNSC space, of mankind. Earth was so close, all the covenant has to do to eradicate humanity was search, and that wouldn't take long.

Private James Gibson, the squad's brains was busy studying a document on covenant architecture, written by some retired professor who had never even gone to war, nor held a pistol. Corporal Anthony Krukov was sitting crouched in the corner, busy studying his M19 SSM rocket launcher's mechanisms and fire control systems. Private Smith Millar was also lying on his bed, beneath Isaac; he was buried in some 20th century book about sniper tactics of world war two while PFC Bruce Wright was slowly loading rounds into 'Brick head', that was his M90 shotgun, he'd stolen it during his academy days and has kept it since, the gun was about as scarred as his childhood.

They were all busy working when Sergeant Major Joe stormed into the room, Isaac jumped down and ordered: "Attention!" The five ODST abandoned their work and stood up, Joe was carrying a bag, and he threw it onto an empty bunk. "Well, as you can see I'm moving in. But before I unpack my toothbrush and blanket we have to ready for the assault, so haul ass to Hangar bay B5 in 5 minutes, while you're at it pack your stuff, this could be the last time you see any of it." a long awkward silence followed Joe words, he looked down for a seconds then into each of their eyes before he turned and left. No one spoke, they simply returned to their assignments, their wasn't much to pack, since they had only 2 or so items each. Isaac sighed and turned to look out the window again, it seemed as everyone stopped their work, there was nothing but eerie silence.

The sergeant examined the six alien dropships, five spirits and a single phantom; they were all in line, all with their landing gear activated, not wheels but antigravity generators which caused them to all hang three meters in the air. The ships were each accompanied by staircases, so technicians could work on the upper hull. The Phantom looked in better condition than the rest of the ships; it also had more room for ammo and weapons, so the choice was made.

Joe walked up a staircase and to the dropships hatch; its interior seemed to be built for luxury but also for war. At the front of the ship was the cockpit, it wasn't separated from the holding compartment but had two seats, both human installed steel ones, in front of the seats was a large holographic displays, gauges, meters and weapon systems as well as navigational and flying controls, all holograms that shimmered brightly. The troop bay had ten holding compartments on each side of the ship; they each had their own weapons hatches and lockers. In the middle there was the gravity lift, above it was a belt system of holders, they were used for faster delivery of troops or equipments, but were replaced by human weapon bays and storage.

Joe exited the ship, just as he was taking his last step down the stairs his five men walked through the hangars main door, they all carried weapons, crates and equipment. "Sir! Team Glory reporting as ordered. We have enough ammo and guns to tear a 500 meter hole in that ships hull sir!" Said Lance Corporal Isaac Scott upon entering the hangar bay. Joe examined their crates and equipment then said, "We'll see about that, unload all weapons in order and class, let me see what you've come up with." That took about 5 minutes for the five troops to organize the guns, but it was helluva stash.

They had six JK4-assualt packs, these were lightweight weapons holders which would swivel when weapons were swapped, which meant the ODST forces could carry two weapons, a side arm and another weapon in their hands, the assault packs had just arrived from Reach two weeks ago, before the covenant attacked. The UNSC saw these nimble, durable and lightweight packs a great asset in any UNSC soldier's armament. Also adding to the assault were six weapon sets, personalized for each ODST.

Joe's loadout consisted of a MA5B-ICWS, a BR55-battle rifle, a M7 bullet hose SMG and a M6D. Isaac and James had the same loadout as Joe, while Anthony's loadout had no BR55 battle rifle, instead that was replaced by a M19 SSM rocket launcher, Smith Millar was equipped with a M203 DMR, a SRS99C-S2 AMB Sniper Rifle, a MA5B and a M6D pistol. Bruce was going in with his brick head shotgun, a MA5B, a M7S SMG and a M6C SOCOM. They were all armed to the teeth, ready to slice and dice through the covenant destroyer.

"Well I'm impressed, we have all the guns we need for the mission, one question though, I know you cant go without a Sniper rifle Smith but how is that going to be effective on a ship? It'll be close quarters engagement, no need for any long range weapons, same goes with the rocket launcher." Joe asked, he ran his right hand through his short cut hair. Smith and Anthony were about to protest but Isaac bet them.

"Sir that ship is huge, the sniper might be effective in the shuttle bays and storage rooms, and there might be hunters and vehicles in their so the rocket launcher is a must have sir." Joe considered the answer, Isaac was right, and so he had to agree, "You make a good statement there, so I'm letting the guns come, now load the weapons into the Phantom, and go to your bunkers and get some sleep; we have a long day ahead of us."

05:09 am hours, 2, September, 2552, aboard captured covenant phantom, Hangar B5, UNSC Fort Hannibal, Farmlands of New Stalingrad, Tribute.

The 30 marines were all packed into the five Spirit dropships, all split into five groups of six, fire teams Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta and echo. The phantom was also packed, the six ODST occupants that formed Team Glory waited inside. Everyone was ready for the assault on Fading Sanity; all had been briefed and trained for Operation Stallion. Sergeant Major Joe was encased in his Mjlonir mark 5CX suit, it was leaner and less bulky than the original mark 5 but its shields were weaker. He sat in the pilots seat next to Lance Corporal Isaac, they didn't touch any controls however, as Leonidas was going to do all the driving and shooting.

The commanding sergeants of the fire teams were all busy doing routine checks; the COM was filled with voices of veterans and of Leonidas. "Leonidas, give me a systems check." Said Joe, the AI appeared on a holographic projector, he wore a red cape over his body, and held a shield that bore the upside down V-shaped emblem of Sparta, his spear was long, and his beard cut short yet pointy, his appearance was different from other UNSC AI's as data didn't scroll on his 'body' but instead formed a spiral around his feet, thus making his stature more realistic, only it was a bluish purple hue, not skin coloured.

"We will be leaving in t-minus sixty seconds, all systems are operational sergeant major and we are ready for take off, stand by for taxi." The AI said the Phantom hummed to life and started to slowly move forward, it had a bulbous shape to it; common among covenant space craft, the spirits however were U shaped and had a bulky frontage. The phantom had a single plasma cannon that was chin-mounted under its cockpit, the side hatches weren't open, and only would open until they were safely stowed aboard the destroyer.

The six dropships all floated outside the hangar now, one by one the powered their main propulsion systems and took of into the void, the phantom was second to take off and seemed to lurch forward unnaturally every three seconds during the trip. The dropships were all had the correct signatures, so the covenant would think all six ships were there, unfortunately there was a flaw to the plan. The covenant ship probably kept track of all ships leaving its shuttle bays, and if they didn't have record of six dropships enroute at such a time entering their hangars they most probably would blast them out of the air, or have a rapid response party ready at the LZ. Only time would tell which of these would occur, the soldiers of the UNSC all hoped the covenant were too lazy to bother with either of these otherwise the attack would be allot harder.

Same time, aboard Fading Sanity

Jackal minor, Zurdab stood idly in front of the holographic display; he was on monitor duty as of this morning and was to report all exits and entries into the ship via Shuttle bay F, he had an uneventful morning till now. Six dropships were coming at medium speed, they had all the appropriate signatures and responses yet the ship roster had no such recording of this group ever leaving or entering the ship. Two of the six however were reported to belong to a CSS cruiser that had been recently destroyed by a human fleet. These could either be survivors or intruders, either way he had to report any remotely suspicious activity.

So he did, he made contact with his senior, Jackal Major Durvarg and told him of the threat, the jackal made best speed to the Control centre. Zurdab waited for his senior, _old ass_ he thought as he waited for over five minutes for Durvarg, this was especially slow considering they were only a floor apart. The shuttle bay had three large energy doors, all could fit a dropship and they could be activated and deactivated only be three dashboards, all located on the second floor of the shuttle bay. The elder jackal arrived in seven minutes, panting lightly; he walked over to Zurdab and examined his report.

The six dropships were all covenant, they had covenant signatures, there appeared to be covenant life forms aboard each one of them, and they all bore covenant weaponry and insignia. So what was the point of him being here? He had not even finished his morning meal and already Zurdab was bitching about something. He couldn't wait till he got of ship borne duty and returned to planetary work, the battlefield was were he belonged. Oh well. He sighed, ordered Zurdab to continue his work and cleared the ships for entrance. As he walked back to the covenant-equivalent of a mess hall He didn't have the slightest idea that his last orders made sure that the battlefield was coming to him.

Same time, aboard captured covenant Phantom

In Tribute the weather was usually cloudy, sun was found odd and its typical temperature was below 11 degrees Celsius. The planet was ridden with volcanoes and seismic activity but most volcanoes were desolate, in the middle of nowhere. The planets most populated population centre was Cabash, a swarming metropolis, recently evacuated after the covenant invasion. The capital city was the centre of trade and businesses within Tribute. However, New Stalingrad was military oriented, with the skyscrapers and buildings usually associated with military organizations such as ONI, The Colonial Administration and Colonial Militia. But when a CSS cruiser had landed, its forces simply outnumbered the defenders, and captured the city by midnight. That's why the Helljumpers came here, to recapture the city, and from there the rest of the colony. Then the fleet escort had arrived, it blew the cruiser to hell but only the frigate UNSC Iowa Jima survived, which was later destroyed by the Fading Sanity.

Currently the temperature was 8º Celsius outside, and even colder inside the dropship, which was why Joe Hubbard found it strange and very irritating, that a trickle of sweat rang down his forehead. Leonidas appeared on the holographic display and announced the ETA was two minutes. Time seemed to have passed incredibly quickly for Joe; he was definitely anxious, and scared. But thankfully no one saw that because he had his visor polarized, so did everyone else. He checked his weapon, a MA5B assault rifle, it seemed too bulky and inaccurate to be a rifle, but it had tremendous stopping power and a 60 round clip to make up for that.

The five other ODSTs kept to them selves, no one spoke and the humming of the engines exerted an eerie atmosphere. Suddenly the ship slowed down significantly, it slowly corrected itself and moved into the hangar of the Destroyer. The holographic displays showed the interior of the covenant shuttle bay. It was a large room with a very tall ceiling, it had two catwalks running along the back wall, both were the pathways across both floors, they had numerous control stations, all manned by jackals, not a single elite in sight, that was good.

The phantom docked first on the top floor, it was followed by two spirits beside it and three more docked below on the lower floor, the last spirit landed on the bottom floor. None of the jackals seemed to care about the mini-fleet, the marines inside stood ready, the lower spirits unloaded its marines, the five men met no resistance until five seconds later, when the doors on all sides and floors of the bay opened and swarms of covenant forces poured in, the other spirits unloaded their troops and the fire fight ensued two seconds later. Both side-hatches on the phantom opened and the ODSTs ran out, Joe switched off the safety on his rifle, retrieved Leonidas from the dropships system and jumped into the void.

Joe sprinted forward and crouched behind a barrier next to Isaac. Joe peered over and saw four elites, one of which was a major, six grunts and a single jackal. His four other team members opened fire and their rifles added to the chaotic sounds of the fire fight. Joe free-ran over the barrier, plasma bolts flashed at his shields, three of them to be precise, he was amazed that he wasn't burning to death on the covenant deck but remembered he was using Spartan gear. Joe levelled his rifle and fired three short burst which sent two grunts to their deaths.

He crouched next to Anthony who used his rifle to down one of the elites. "Anthony! I need cover fire on that lance, send Private Bruce over to that crate and nail the bastards." The rock-hard Russian passed the orders on to Bruce who leaped over the cover and sprinted towards the crates, Team Glory covered him with a spray of AP rounds which tore covenant shields apart. Bruce wielded his shotgun and fired from his vantage point at the elite major sending the alien two meters back, killing it before its body even hit the cold hard deck of the covenant destroyer.

As the fire fight continued more covenant reinforcements arrived, and more marines fell. Joe didn't realize the casualties the jar-heads were taking until three blue plasma bolts hit him in the back. His shields sparked and fell, he spun around to see over ten covenant infantry flanking his rear, beneath them lay the remains of fire team Alpha. As his five men fought the covenant from the front, he tackled the rear advance. Without thinking he unclipped a portion of his belt, it carried three grenades; Joe pulled the three pins then leaned back and threw the belt. It flew gracefully arcing six meters across the catwalk before landing dead centre in the covenant formation,

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Shouted Joe as he spun around, ripped a piece of covenant alloy from the bulkhead and used it as a make shift shield.

The three grenades exploded simultaneously, they combined forces to form a hemisphere of incinerating heat, the fire spread out five meters from the centre of the explosion killing the covenant squad instantly and sending ten burned, limbless and organ-less carcasses flying outward. The shrapnel peppered Joe's 'shield' and the surrounding area. Only a five meter crater remained, that part of the catwalk crumbled, failed and crashed down onto the floor below, crushing three grunts.

Now there was a huge gap in the pathway, which secured team Glory's back but left them with only one way out. Joe combined fire with his team as they downed another covenant lance, the alien bodies started to pile; the body count had reached twenty six already, only ten minutes into the fight. More covenant soldiers started to roll in, and one of the doors were rendered useless by a grenade which made the aliens bunch in one door. The human forces downstairs weren't having Team Glory's luck, instead they were being slaughtered by covenant infantry, and the marines went from 30 to 12, less then half the original.

Zurdab didn't realise that he'd been hiding for over 15 minutes behind the crate; he was mere inches from over thirty covenant corpses, all riddled with armour piercing rounds. He had his pistol clutched in his hands but no shield. He should have blasted those six ships on first sight, then the tens of rotting bodies sprawled around him wouldn't be there, they'd be alive and the humans would have been dealt a huge blow.

But that wasn't the case, he peered over his cover, three grunts fought five human's, they were downed in five seconds and joined the pile of rotting dead. The door to his right opened and two makagelo stormed in, thankfully they trotted right past him and engaged the humans, Zurdab prayed these behemoths would survive, because if these things didn't stop the humans nothing would.

The Hunter fired and the plasma mortar roared forward, Anthony had no time to fire back, he dived sideways tackling Isaac, the mortar flew past his feet and slammed into the phantom, the impact blew the craft sideways knocking it into a pillar causing the building to shudder. The dropship crumbled and then slammed forward into the catwalk, sparks flew as the ship skidded on the alloy surface before ramming into the wall, the ship dug five meters into the bulkhead, it sat there for a moment before emitting a low frequency sound, fires bloomed around the ship before it imploded a brilliant bluish white and left a smouldering, black and ruined hull.

Anthony got up, slung his rifle and levelled the M91 SSM rocket launcher, he squeezed the trigger and the 102mm shaped charge HEAT projectile flew forward and right into the hunters torso. The following explosion split the monster in half and bathed three meters in orange mush. "DOWN!" yelled Joe as the second hunter, enraged by his brother death charged his cannon and let loose the extremely hot, superheated, green plasma bolt, it arced only a few feet over the ground before bursting right into Anthony, his shields, not accustomed to a one-kill shot like that broke and flared, Anthony flew five meters back and slammed into a piece of the recently destroyed Phantom.

Bruce discarded his rifle and grabbed his 'Brick Head' M90 TS shotgun, he charged forward, ducked, rolled and spun around, all at lightning speed. He now was crouched behind the hunter but a split-second before his finger found the trigger the hunter rose his massive shield and spun it back, the ODST, knowing it was futile fighting hand-to-hand with the behemoth, evaded the blow by rolling to his left. The shield came down at lightning speed and struck the spot that Bruce had vacated a hundredth-of a second before.

With no hesitation Bruce's finger pulled the trigger, the shotgun kicked back sending the 8-guage magnum shell spiralling at point-blank range, the first shell was useless, hitting the hunters armour. The shotgun was pumped and fired, pumped and fired and pumped and fired, the three shells were fired all half a second between each other and they all hit dead-centre in the covenant warriors unprotected back, the colony within the creature was decimated and broke ranks, the eels poured out of the hunters armour and the heavy slabs of metal fell to the floor.

With the monsters dead and no apparent hostiles Isaac Scott proceeded with tending to Anthony, the blast had driven him 30 centimetres into a piece of covenant dropship, his frontal armour was burned and his shields disabled beyond repair. The plasma had burned his entire chest plate revealing his under layers. "Bloody _Pessa_." Muttered he muttered as Isaac checked his wounds, "I'm not gonna ask what that means, you have no serious injuries, the armour survived the blast, your not in shock and you biomonitors read green." Reported Isaac as he clicked some buttons on his Biopad, although it wasn't necessary with his Mjlonir armour's HUD system.

It took Isaac and both James and Smith to haul the seven-foot tall Russian. Some people, upon first sight thought the ODST to be a Spartan due to his impregnable size and height, any other ODST or marine would have died instantly facing a blast like that, but not Anthony. He had survived numerous blows from elites and two or three melees from a brute Major, and neither of those had damaged him permanently, although the Brute had left three bones broken, efficiently putting Anthony out of action for six weeks. The five man team regrouped, all were well and ready for the remainder of the mission. The marines had all died, every last one of them had simply been out run by the covenant forces, the covenant knew they were coming and none of the ODSTs knew that Zurdab had alerted the ambush team as soon as Durvarg had left the shuttle bay twenty nine minutes ago.

Zurdab gulped, with the hunters dead and the entire shipboard covenant ambush team eradicated at the price of only 30 humans, he was left with two options: he could commit suicide by trying to fight with 'honour and valour' or he could make a run for the door. It was only five meters away and now seemed like his best bet for another day of life, he swallowed hard and ran, _one meter down... two meters across… three met- _a single bullet, a 7.62mm round to be precise, slammed into his spine, the jackal fell to the floor bleeding and crawling towards the door, he couldn't breath, so he turned around finding five humans surrounding him all hiding behind orange visors. Every thing hurt, looking hurt, feeling hurt and thinking hurt, the jackal saw one last option. He reached for his pistol, ready to end his life when two more identical rounds struck his head; he felt a brief sting in his nose and right eye before he felt nothing at all.

Joe Hubbard used his suit to scan the area, only him and his five men appeared on his readings. Disappointed he rescanned a second time, examining the readings individually, to his relief ten marines remained. "Men, secure that door, get it open and check your weapons. Marines meet us at designated rally point alpha. This was the easy part." Ordered Joe as he surveyed the area: There was three floors, all littered with covenant and human dead. Plasma scorched the bulkheads and bullets had peppered the covenant alloy. In front of him lay over 30 covenants dead; all were sprawled on the floor, most in uneven angles. One particular elite had over sixteen bullets in his body and his neck was pointed unnaturally backwards, the alien's helmet was dented and his 'forehead' had two shotgun rounds punctured deep.

"Leonidas, status report." Joe unpolarized his helmet and sighed, the fight had been long and stressful and yet they hadn't even moved a corridor into the ship. "Your squad has to proceed into this corridor and take the first left then proceed down the right service path then down the right elevator. I will update you on the way, good luck Joe." The AI informally used his first name and then highlighted numerous checkpoints on Joe visor.

"Team, delta formation, James take the six and everyone keep tight, no one strays off, this ship is like a labyrinth, if you get lost there's no coming back." Joe polarized his visor and then took the 12'0'clock, slowly the six ODSTs, encased in their Mjlonir armour set out through the ship meeting up with the marines in the process, covering hundreds of corridors, and an equal amount of enemies before reaching the ships four brig stations, they were composed of two bays of detention centres, each with five prisoner cells. It took Team Glory thirty minutes to find the right detention centre, and with a single satchel charge the door to the station was blown apart, taking with it two grunts.

Inside, instead of three elites or a handful of jackals there was over fifty Honour Guard elites, Joe gulped as he swung his rifle around, and the elite's simultaneously discarded their ceremonial spears and unsheathed energy swords and plasma rifles. Outnumbered 5 to one, the ODSTs and marines back-pedalled out the door and rushed to take up firing positions around the corridor. In the detention cell, Joe could see a prophet hierarch leaving, accompanied by four bodyguards, it was rushing away from a prison cell holding what appeared to be a human. They had found Brigadier General Vincent Matthews, along with 50 of the covenants finest warriors.

The covenant soldiers poured out of the two-metre wide doorway, the first five killed by a SPNKR rocket. The UNSC soldiers opened fire instantly, snipers rifles kicked back, shotguns boomed and assault rifles rang as hundreds of bullets sprinkled the door, its security mechanism failed and the door way, along with the surrounding bulkhead split asunder, allowing further passage for the elites. AP rounds, magnum bullets, fin-stabilized discarding rounds and plasma bolts ripped through the air. The elites, disorganized and baying for blood fell easy, most had not even activated their energy shields, not a single ODST or marine was scratched. The aliens retreated and regrouped, this time attacking in files, there ranks broke and as their leaders fell so did their orientation as lesser beings tried to take command. With 19 elites dead, the remaining 31pulled back, but they were routed and gunned down.

This time the 30 or so remaining aliens retrieved shields, usually equipped by jackals but still effective, they charged forward in five lines of five men each, the phalanx pushed forward as bullets helplessly bounced off the energy shields. The elite warrior came within five meters of the humans then broke ranks, all activating their swords and madly burrowing into the narrow corridor, it was a suicide move and more of a brutal charge then a tactical manoeuvre. Joe killed two elites before a third one ran its sword through his thigh; the blade melted his armour and tore an inch into the ODSTs skin. Joe screamed and rammed his assault rifles barrel into the elites mouth and pressed the trigger, he emptied 30 rounds into the aliens head, the brain was spilt apart and the head ripped in two, the bullets caused everything from neck up to explode, it was a gory scene. A thigh injury for a head, it seemed fair to Joe as he fired the remainder of his clip into fourth elite. More blood-hungry aliens charged but fell to the onslaught of bullets. But they didn't die for nothing, by the end of the twenty minute skirmish Joe, Anthony, Smith, Bruce and two marines all suffered injury. Three marines were dead.

The stitched up their wounds and applied field dressings, it was the most they could do to stop the bleeding and pain. Then they injected morphine and other UNSC standard fluids to numb the pain. Joe however, suffered the worst injury, his thigh was still usable, and if not for the Mjlonir armour he wouldn't be able to walk. So the five ODSTs and seven marines proceeded to the detention cell. Joe deactivated the plasma field and helped the Brigadier General out of the prison. "Bout time you arrived marine, I almost grew a beard." The two men chuckled, Vincent Matthew had various scars etching in his face, he smiled but it was more of grimace due to a damaged upper lip. "Thank you." he inspected his rescuers, most were injured, but despite the battle they had just fought they all seemed happy to have accomplished their mission.

Without time for handshakes or formalities, they rescued an additional twenty marines, suffering some casualties. The UNSC force now numbered 37, 32 marines, seven injured, and 5 ODSTs, all five injured. They fought through the network of corridors and vehicle bays, encountering scattered pockets of covenant infantry. At one point the ship changed course and seemed to decrease altitude. With the guidance of Leonidas they finally reached the shuttle bay, it was still littered with the covenant dead the UNSC soldiers had put to sleep only two hours ago. The area was deserted; the humming of anti-gravity generators challenged the footsteps of the soldiers.

Just as Joe had finished organizing the troops, Leonidas interrupted, but using Joes loudspeakers so everyone heard. "Brigadier General! I have an Alpha priority short-bust message from General Swanthron!" everyone froze, and Vincent replied, "Play it then." the AI complied, their was some static then some booms and scattered voices and screams.

"This is General Swanthron, effective commander of all UNSC forces on or around New Stalingrad, the covenant is glassing the city, I repeat the city is being glassed, Fort Hannibal has fallen to plasma bombardment. We need n extraction immediat-." A hiss of fire crackled in the background and the line was cut. No one spoke, it was everything that the didn't want. Leonidas broke the silence and said. "Sir, connect me to that holograph please." Joe, not knowing what else to do complied and then the AI made contact with the display, the hologram morphed into a transparent screen.

Two seconds later an aerial view of New Stalingrad appeared, the city was red hot, burning like a blowtorch from hell, smoke rose and formed a wall of ash that completely blanketed the city-centre. One marine cracked, "OH GOD! We are all gonna die! OH GOD NO! We're all dead, we trapped here, were screwed man, SCREWED!" A sergeant silenced him, and shoved a cloth into his mouth. Vincent thought for a moment, contemplating his options. "Sergeant Major, I have a plan, we need to get to the ships bridge if it were to succeed." He said. Joe looked concerned but had no other ideas, "What do you have in mind?"

CHAPTER 4, CONTRACT BREACH

07:58 am hours, 2, September, 2552, aboard covenant destroyer Fading Sanity, above New Stalingrad, Tribute.

Joe Hubbard peered around the bend, his estimations were correct, over 50 honour guards, 6 covert elites, a golden-armoured energy sword wielding ship-master and the prophet hierarch. Enough covenant to kill him and his men three times over. They had fought through the ship, struggling against the onslaught of grunts and jackals, and now had finally arrived at the ships heart, the bridge. It was a large room, pillars floated for decoration, and two doors on either side were guarded by 3 specops elites each.

A single rectangular platform hung in the centre; it was guarded well and had masses of holographic displays criss-crossing over it, and on top was the ship-master, the prophet and an aide, along with 20 honour guards. Going in guns blazing was suicide, and his marines would die quickly in a heap. He retreated and returned to the 30 soldiers under his command, they awaited orders in silence. Joe had to find a way to clear the room out, than the idea struck him like the sword that had struck his thigh a couple of hours ago.

He remembered the fight in the shuttle bay and how his belt-grenade manoeuvre had killed the covenant flanking his squad. He then ordered his men to all unclip their grenades and place them in the centre. He counted around 15 frag grenades and 10 plasma grenades, then using standard issue UNSC tape he stuck the grenades in belts of 5 each. Which left them with six belts, all heavy but throw-able.

Using the HUD system he flagged six positions on his ODSTs TACMAPS, he then assigned each of them one position and a single belt, and then outlined the plan to the marines, "So we throw the…

Froha Pucstamee, the aide to the Minor prophet of Vengeance stood idly as the ship-master outlined the operation. "The city has been destroyed along with the rest of the planet, out fleet numbers six frigates, two cruisers and this ship. We will blockade the planet until further orders arrive from the flag-ship at Re-ac-h, until then we will stand by, my master." He said, and then clicked his mandibles. The elite zealot stood at 8 feet 6 in golden-clad armour, his energy sword hilt resting on his thigh.

The prophet whispered in Froha's ear, the elite nodded and said to the ship-master, "The holy one is concerned about the human invaders, we have lost many soldiers and have no idea where the mongrels are hiding, infesting this holy ship." The golden elite thought for a moment and replied, "My master, the humans are nothing to worry about, they won't take another step-" Froha saw why the elite had stopped talking, six objects flew through the room and landed in six different positions, one of the positions was right in front of the prophet hierarch, without hesitation Froha tackled the prophets throne, they fell and landed on the floor below.

Joes visor went to maximum darkness as the 30 explosions ripped the bridge apart; the force rumbled through the corridor, three marines fell as the mini-earthquake shook the floor. The blast obliterated the room, and everything alive inside it was incinerated instantly, the heat left not a single bone or limb surviving. Quickly, and with proficiency the 30 soldiers charged in the room, weapons raised, expecting some stray elite but to no avail. Joe stared aghast at the ruins, the room was black and misshapen, nothing was left except an empty black space and the platform, all 59 occupants were killed instantly, the ODST was shocked by the death he had caused.

Brigadier General Vincent, needle rifle in his hand patted Joe on the back, "Serves them right, good work." he said as he walked past the ODST. Surprisingly the holographs continued to function. Joe placed his palm on one of the displays and Leonidas hacked into the covenant ship, he cut all air to every part of the ship except the bridge, effectively chocking and killing every elite, jackal, drone, engineer and hunter. Only grunts survived due to their methane tanks. The AI scanned the ship, only 70 or so grunts left, he then turned air back on, nothing moved.

Within the next 30 minutes the AI using the ships interior systems, forced the 70 grunts to lock themselves in a single cargo bay. He then disconnected the bay from the rest of the ship, sending it down to the surface. The destroyer, Fading Sanity was effectively now under human control and not a single other covenant ship knew. Its pulse lasers and plasma torpedoes all functioned perfectly and smoothly, the engines and reactors were at full power, the marvel of covenant engineering was finally in human hands.

Unknown time, 2, September, 2552, aboard UNSC Tigris during slipspace, en route to Tribute.

Vice Admiral David Lee rested in his command seat, his fleet, Battle group Hit, was on their way to Tribute, after Reach had fallen no one knew what had happened to Tribute and his group of three Marathon-class cruisers and eight destroyers was sent to investigate. "Three minutes till we reach normal space sir." Said Navigation officer Anna, she had served on the UNSC Tigris for three years alongside David, they were good friends, and usually lacked formality when alone, but not on the bridge.

The Admiral brushed his steel-Gray hair and sighed. He thought of home, his wife and children. The good old days drinking whiskey near the lake with his friends, playing guitar and singing poorly to the beat of 20th century rock. That was all gone, his wife and children, home, his whiskey and friends, the lake all gone. All glassed and burned by the undignified and pathetic excuse for warriors, the covenant. He wanted to line them all up and run a bullet through their heads, and then watch them burn alive as their own homes and planets were burned, they say they fight with honour, but mercilessly killing innocent civilians was three hundred light years away from honour and dignity.

He still had his guitar however, but it was not tuned and the strings were all broken and unworthy for use. He had his share of war, he single-handedly destroyed three covenant ships, and carpet bombed thousands of jackals during his times as a longsword wing commander. The fire in his heart, the hatred for all that was covenant burned faster than napalm, and drove him to complete his missions and fight until the covenant was nothing more than history. But the covenant had a fire-extinguisher in the form of glassed colonies that crushed human morale.

So ONI decided to let loose some propaganda bullshit that the UNSC was winning, the Spartan-II program was also made public to boost morale. It succeeded only for soldiers safely tucked away, not for those that were fighting on the front-lines; David didn't know why ONI even bothered, it was futile trying to boost the ever-decreasing morale of marines. "Sir, we're exiting slipspace…now." Said Anna, her eyes piercing the displays stronger than EMP. The ship seemed to slightly slow down then it bounced forward and out into normal space.

It was like Harvest all over again, a covenant fleet circled around a ball of burned glass; Tribute had joined Reach on the list of obliterated colonies. The Tigris, a marathon class cruiser aligned with three other ships of the same class followed by the eight destroyers. The covenant fleet, consisting of six frigates and two CCS cruisers entered slipspace and exited right in front of the Battle Group Hit, their weapons all charged a brilliant red, then blue and finally a searing white, but the UNSC had already unleashed their first salvo. "Stand by… FIRE!"

12 MAC rounds came accelerating through space at over the speed of sound, the first two missed miserably while the rest found their targets. Three rounds hit a frigate, the first two knocked out the shields and the last blew it to smithereens. The reaming seven all hit separate vessels. "Unleash archer pods A to G on that cruiser; order the fleet to do the same." David said as the ship shuddered from the hundreds of missiles blasting out of its pods.

Over 5000 archer missiles came screaming at the covenant ships, delaying the enemy attack as they diverted power to their pulse lasers, however the missiles all targeted the first cruiser, it managed to destroy 400 missiles but the reaming 4600 all hit home, the blasts ripped the cruisers shields asunder, its stern was ripped to pieces but he rest of the ship functioned normally. Plasma torpedoes slammed into the destroyers melting the battle plate armour and destroying the sister ships UNSC Fog and UNSC steam.

The covenant ships let loose more torpedoes and lasers and destroyed another three destroyers. The UNSC ships retaliated with two salvoes of archer missiles and MAC rounds, four covenant frigates blew apart and a cruiser was split in half. The UNSC suffered more losses as torpedoes struck dead-centre but the cruisers let loose more MAC rounds and missiles. By the end of the battle the UNSC had lost seven destroyers while the covenant lost their entire fleet.

08:32 am hours, 2, September, 2552, aboard covenant destroyer Fading Sanity, above New Stalingrad, Tribute.

"Leonidas, are you sure?" Said Vincent, the AI replied before Vincent drew another breath,

"Yes sir it's confirmed, battle group Hit has liberated tribute, I've made contact with Admiral David Lee, CO of the fleet." The rescue team waited for an order, but none came,

"Sir, we can rendezvous with them, I just need your permission." Said Leonidas. Joe turned to Brigadier General Matthews,

"Sir, we have nothing else to do."

"Very well Leonidas bring us to them, tell them not to fire."

"Affirmative, we will reach them in a minute sir."

"Men! Ready a dropship, Joe and I will board their flag-ship and plan our next mission."

In Unison the Marines replied, "Sir, yes sir!"

The covenant destroyer lurched then pushed to full speed, accelerating out of the atmosphere and into space. The ship looked like a shark ready to attack its prey, waiting for the moment its meal let down its guard. The displays showed hundreds of bits of debris, a ship graveyard in space. The plasma and MAC impacts left holes in larger parts of metal. As the ship slipped along side the UNSC Tigris, Joe and Vincent's dropship flew out of its shuttle bay, it looked small and unimportant next to the behemoths of the Tigris and Fading Sanity, it quietly sped through space then it reached the Tigris's Launch bay, the doors opened and the ship docked next to a pelican dropship.

A marine escorted the two men to the front of the ship; it took 20 minutes to finally reach the bridge. David stood up from his command chair and shook hands with the two men, "Admiral David Lee, commander of this fleet, I assume your Brigadier General Vincent Matthews?"

"Yes sir… this is Sergeant Major Joe Hubbard, his ODST team saved my life and captured the covenant destroyer, and he's my second in command sir."

"Well, were gonna need all your assets if we are going to win this war General."

"I Concur."

"Tribute has been glassed and the fleet destroyed, so I'm guessing we can head back to earth?"

"Actually I was hoping you can approve a mission."

"What do you have?"

"Well we have a covenant ship, and covenant Intel. It would be a waste to not putt it into good use."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying we launch a counter-attack, one particular target I have in mind is _this_ station." Vincent produced a data-pad from his pocket; it showed the coordinates to a covenant mining facility.

"This is where the covenant fuelled their ships before they attacked reach, they call it the Convicted Seeker, it's a covenant ore mining facility that can fuel up to a hundred covenant ships at once, if we can infiltrate it and destroy it we can deny the enemy a huge asset."

"We'd get glassed before we get one kilometre of it."

"We would if we used this ship, but using Fading Sanity, and Leonidas's knowledge on covenant systems, we could get well within range to plant a bomb."

"What kind of bomb?"

"A Shiva Nuclear missile, of course. Joe and his team, with some help could insert it then escape. Then they return to the ship and we slipspace back here."

"And what if they are detected?"

"They escape, dump the bomb where ever and make best speed back to the destroyer."

"And you're certain this will work?"

"With all the Intel we have, it has to."

"It's too risky, we should return to earth, the engineers need that ship, and it's our only chance."

"Soon Earth will be found and having a single covenant ship isn't going to make the biggest difference. Leonidas confirmed that the ships shields and weaponry would take years to be reverse-engineered or even put to any use, and we don't have years, not even months."

"You make a point Vincent."

"Sir, Permission to launch the space op?"

"Permission granted."

08:32 am hours, 31, September, 2552, aboard covenant destroyer Fading Sanity, above New Stalingrad, Tribute.

"The upcoming space op, otherwise known as Operation Seeker is going to be led by Joe and his ODSTs. With the help of the AI Leonidas, the Fading Sanity will exit slip space here." Lieutenant Bob Scott pointed to the screen; it displayed the map of the surrounding space around the covenant ore facility, showing the locations of covenant ships and seraph fighter patrols. "Then it will make best speed here." He pointed to a flag. "The ODST team will enter the facility using this vehicle bay." The display zoomed in and Bob pointed again, "Then they will make their way to this reactor." More pointing "And drop the bomb, then they will return to their dropship and leave the facility."

"If for any reason they cannot return to the Fading Sanity in time, the crew must evacuate the space system immediately." Bob then shut the screen off. "Remember this, Ogre nine, which is the distress code that you will send in this event. If you cannot reach the reactor you will drop the bomb at your current location and escape. If defeat is imminent you MUST activate the bomb. Good luck gentlemen." The six men inside the room, Joe, Isaac, Anthony, Smith, James and Bruce all stood up from their seats and walked out of the briefing room aboard UNSC Tigris.

Joe and his men packed their gear for the upcoming battle, rifles and grenades were stowed away on a covenant dropship, they wrote their wills and saluted a good by to the marines who had served alongside them in the gruelling three hour rescue mission. Brigadier General Vincent Matthews waited of them at the launch bay, hand behind his back and in formal UNSC uniform. "Attention!" The six men offered a brief and crisp salute. "Sergeant Major Joe, you are going on possibly the hardest and most risky military mission of your life. I never fully thanked you for saving me from that god awful mess of a ship. Thank you Joe, god be with you." He saluted again and the ODSTs mimicked.

A pelican took them and their gear from the marathon-class cruiser, to the covenant destroyer, the two giant ships were docked along side each other, the covenant ships stash of small-arms and vehicles were all transferred to the UNSC Tigris, for research and for combat use. The Fading Sanity kept its plasma weapons, it might need them, but the rest of the ship was abandoned, and only a marine company was stationed on it in-case of emergency. The covenant ship ferried the last of its supplies before lurching slowly forward, it accelerated forward and powered its slipspace engine, surges of micro-atoms and mini black holes fused and discharged around the ship, and it shrunk and stretched before it blasted off into slipspace. The space around it misshaped then blinked back to normal configuration and the ship was gone.

05:01 pm hours, 30, August, 2552, Epsilon Erdani system, Orbital Defence Generator Facility A-331, planet Reach.

Corporal Brody Derickson, member of fire team alpha, second platoon, Charlie Company sat in the passenger seat of the warthog reconnaissance vehicle. His light-brown hair was cut thin and his eyes glowed an emerald green, he had always been one for the ladies, but the last he had ever seen of a woman was two years ago, and it was actually a mannequin not a real women. The covenant had finally found Reach, from his position he couldn't tell who was winning in the space battle, but given the numbers and weaponry he guessed the covenant was.

A loud deafening boom sound accompanied a covenant cruiser that emerged from the clouds; it sped forward and came to a halt over a valley near the Big Horn River. Its weapons were glistening but idle, which mean it wasn't going to glass anything yet, which was a slight relief for Brody. Every one took up stations on the MG47 general purpose machine gun turrets. The driver kicked up gear and drove towards the formation of other warthogs. A man jumped in the gunner seat and the six vehicles sped forward, they took up positions on the right flank of the generator complex, which was surrounded by bunkers.

The companies artillery unit, which compromised of two Rhino experimental tanks stood ready on the left, along with a pair of scorpion tanks. Around 250 marines dug in the previously built trenches and spider holes, the UNSC position here wasn't going down without a fight. They were led by Lieutenant Buckman, who had ordered the marines to lay a mine field on Lotus anti-tank mines all around the field, around 50 anti-personnel mines also were planted and the network of mines stretched along the entire field.

Corporal Anthony Krukov, a rock-hard Russian heavy weapons specialist who had served on one of the first Marathon-class cruisers ever built. Corporal Smith Millar AKA 'smithy sniper', the squad marksman. Private James Gibson, their tech-geek and Intel officer and last but not least Private Bruce Wright, the squads CQC specialist, his shotgun had helped countless covenant soldier's transcend the physical.


End file.
